William Frederick Cody ('Buffalo Bill')

American frontiersman, showman, star of the first cowboy film

Cody's daring exploits as a Pony Express rider, army scout and buffalo hunter inspired a series of sensational dime novels and a play, Scouts of the Plains, in which he appeared under the enduring soubriquet 'Buffalo Bill'. In 1894 he featured in a number of Edison Kinetoscope films, together with performers from his Wild West show, founded in 1883. Cody was a popular subject with newsreel cameramen, also appearing as himself in The Life of Buffalo Bill (1909); Buffalo Bill's Far West and Pawnee Bill's Far East (1910); The Indian Wars Refought (1913); Sitting Bull - The Hostile Indian Chief (1914); and Patsy of the Circus (1915). Annie Oakley (1860-1926), the 'Little Sure Shot' of his Wild West show, also performed for the Kinetoscope in 1894.